Pixel bistability is a desirable attribute for a liquid crystal display (‘LCD’) because this eliminates the need constantly to refresh the display or to employ a silicon memory device behind each pixel, which becomes prohibitively expensive as the number of pixels increases. With bistability, only pixels that need to be changed need addressing, and simple matrix addressing may be employed.
Bistable LCDs are known which employ chiral tilted smectic liquid crystals, for example chiral smectic C materials, which exhibit ferroelectricity. However, there are many problems with ferroelectric LCDs, including a paucity of stable, room-temperature materials, wide-temperature-range materials, and structural defects which result from mechanical stress. Because of the problems associated with ferroelectric smectic materials it is desirable to fabricate bistable LCDs using nematic liquid crystals (‘LC’).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,708 discloses a multistable nematic LC device in which switching between stable configurations is by the movement of disclinations in response to electric fields.
In WO 91/11747 and WO 92/00546 it is proposed to provide a bistable surface by careful control of the thickness and evaporation of SiO coatings. A first stable planar orientation of the director could be obtained, and a second stable orientation in which the director is at an azimuthal angle (in the plane of the surface) of 90° to the first orientation in the plane of the surface, and tilted by around 30°.
In “Mechanically Bistable Liquid-Crystal Display Structures”, R N Thurston et al, IEEE Trans. on Elec. Devices, Vol. ED-27, No. 11, Nov. 1980, there are described two bistable nematic LC modes which are called “vertical-horizontal” and “horizontal-horizontal”. In the vertical-horizontal mode, both cell walls are treated to give a roughly 45° tilt which permits the directors to be switched between two states in a plane which is perpendicular to the major surfaces of the device. In the horizontal-horizontal mode, the director is switchable between two angles in a plane parallel to the major surfaces of the device.
A bistable nematic display using monostable surface switching has been proposed by I. Dozov et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 70 (9), 1179, 3 Mar. 1997. Switching in a thin cell is achieved between a low twist and a high twist state by the application of short electric pulses. Both cell wall surfaces have planar anchorings. Hydrodynamically coupled breaking of both anchorings results in the high twist state, and breaking only one anchoring results in the low twist state.
Polarity-sensitive switching has been found in a nematic LC-polymer mixture: R. Bartolino et al, J. Appl. Phys. Vol. 85 No. 5, 2870, 1 Mar. 1999. An LC/prepolymer mixture is polymerised in a cell so as to produce a gradient of concentrated polymer across the cell. It is thought that an asymmetric space charge distribution causes asymmetric electro-optical behaviour. A strong negative current produces a scattering (bright) state, and a weak positive current permits a transition to a homeotropic (dark) state.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,459 describes the use of a bigrating alignment structure which induces bistable surface states with different azimuthal orientations.
WO 97/14990 and WO 99/34251 describe the use of a monograting surface with a homeotropic local director, which has two stable states with different tilt angles within the same azimuthal plane. The homeotropic alignment is achieved by creating the monograting in a layer of material which causes spontaneous homeotropic orientation or, more practically, by coating the grating surface with a homeotropic inducing alignment agent such as lecithin. This grating surface is used to form a Zenithal Bistable Device or ZBD.
A bistable nematic device is described EP 1 139 151, wherein one cell wall is provided with an array of upstanding features which have a shape and/or orientation to induce the local director to adopt two different tilt angles in substantially the same azimuthal direction. The arrangement is such that two stable molecular configurations can exist after suitable electrical signals have been applied. The features are typically microscopic posts, used to form a Post-Aligned Bistable Nematic device, or PABN.
Typically the depth of gratings or post alignment features of the ZBD or PABN devices is about 1 μm and the ratio depth/width is about 0.6. Gratings this deep are fairly challenging to replicate by mass manufacturing methods.
Bistable nematic displays have been described in which the nematic LC has dispersed in it nanoparticles which are believed to form structures that stabilise the LC in either a scattering state or a homeotropic (non-scattering) state. Switching between the states is achieved either by two-frequency addressing or by the action of a laser. Two frequency-addressable displays are described in: R. Eidenschink, W. H. De Jue “Static scattering in filled nematic: new liquid crystal display technique” Electronics Letters 20 Jun. 1991, vol. 27, No. 13, pp 1195-1196, A. Gluschenko et al “Memory effect in filled nematic liquid crystals” Liquid Crystals, 1997, vol. 23, No. 2, pp 241-246, and M. Kawasumi et al “Nematic liquid crystal/clay mineral composites” Minerals Science and Engineering C6 (1998), pp 135-143. Laser-writable displays are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,952 and M. Kreuzer et al “New liquid crystal display with bistability and selective erasure using scattering in filled nematics” Appl. Phys. Lett., 62(15), 12 Apr. 1993, pp 1712-1714. A study of particle dynamics in such systems is presented in S. Lee et al “Dynamic behaviour of silica particles in liquid crystals under an ac applied voltage” Proc. of 13th Intern. Conf. on Dielectric Liquids(ICDL '99), Nara, Japan, Jul. 20-25, 1999, pp 571-574.
Problems of two-frequency addressing include a paucity of suitable materials and increased complexity of the drive electronics. Laser-writable devices are costly and complex to manufacture, and the use of both heat and voltage to switch the LC is undesirable.